Textile Power Road:Chinese brand's journey to the West

By Zhong Mengxia

In the past 10 years,with the improvement of China's comprehensive national strength,industry strength and cultural confidence,a lot of China textile and clothing brands have gained firm places in the international market.

In 2012,China National Textile and Apparel Council issued the Outline of Building a Textile Power(2011—2020),which listed building a brand power as one of the four main lines of building a textile power.China National Textile and Apparel Council proposed to optimize the development environment,improve international awareness,steadily promote the growth of "international famous brands",improve the inter—national recognition of oriental culture and textile cre—ativity,and promote the product value.Two years later,on May 10th,2014,Xi Jinping,the general secretary em—phasized that China should promote the transformation of manufacturing to creation,speed to quality and prod—ucts to brands.This important instruc—tion of "three transformations" has pointed out the direction and provided fundamental compliance for the high—quality development of manufacturing in China,and also made the pace of transformation and upgrading of tex—tile and garment industry and building China brand more firm and powerful.

Until the end of the "Thirteenth Five—Year Plan",the recognition,repu—tation and influence of domestic tex—tiles and clothing have been continuously enhanced.About 85% of clothing and home textile brands in major domestic commercial entities are indepen—dent brands;The consumption scale of original trend brands in China accounts for more than 15% of brand consumption.

Epoch-making events

According to the Outline of CNTAC,capital and independent brands are encouraged to go overseas by the country and government.Through various means such as publicity,international cooperation and ac—quisition,Chinese brand should open a breakthrough for independent brand enterprises and products to smoothly enter overseas markets,break the monopoly position of developed countries in marketing chan—nels,cultural identity and design creativity,improve the international market competitiveness and influ—ence of well—known brand products,well—known brand enterprises and well—known regional brands in China's textile industry,and gradually step onto the status of international well—known brands,thus further promot—ing the industrial brand value.On this basis,in the past 10 years,more and more China brands have stepped onto the world stage,showing the professionalism and strength of China brands.

In 2012,Bosideng opened its flagship store in London,spending 350 million yuan.Despite the twists and turns of Bosideng brand's plan to develop busi—ness oversea over the years,it can't be denied that their attempt has become a symbolic step for China textile and garment brands to enter the international market.In addition to entering the international first—tier fashion cities,Bosideng also released a joint series with French national treasure designer Jean Paul Gaultier and Japanese designer Kenzo Takada,and cooperated with Disney,Marvel Comics and other famous companys,showing a series of "combination boxing" to raise their awareness.

In the same year,sports brand Li Ning and fashion women's brand Peacebird officially appeared in New York Fashion Week.Ob—viously,China's "Generation Z" consumers are more proud of the Chinese culture.Li Ning's debut at Paris Fashion Week in 2018 dem—onstrated that China brands have the ability to lead modern popular street fashion style to young generation.

Science and technology

In fact,the success of these brands is not only due to the Chi—nese style fashion,but also the support of science and technology.Bosideng continues to innovate in down coat,fabric,technology,and applies aerospace material technology to Dengfeng series down jackets,and innovatively develops and launches windbreaker down jackets.In the past 10 years,through continuous multi—dimensional efforts in product research and development,category innovation,brand building,etc.,Bosideng's products have sold in 72 countries,and their quality has been well received by consumers at home and abroad,thus achieving a pretty good performance.In April this year,Brand Finance,one of the top five international brand value evaluation authorities,announced the "Top 50 Most Valuable Clothing Brands in the World in 2022",and Bosideng was on the list for the second time.

In addition,according to reliable data,in the first half of this year,Li Ning's R＆D investment reached 236 million yuan,a year—on—year in—crease of 28.26%.The increase of R＆D expenses exceeded that of the company's revenue and net profit."In the past 10 years,in the new de—velopment of China's garment industry,science and technology have be—come the most important starting point and energy for industrial trans—formation and upgrading." Chen Dapeng,vice president of China National Textile and Apparel Council and president of China Garment Association,said.At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics,the uniform equipment devel—oped by Anta,a domestic sports brand,has also injected many scientific and technological innovations in design,fabric and technology.The heat—ing technology of Anta improves the function of fabric and effectively prevents the heat loss of human body.

Online marketing

With the traditional brand development model,Chinese brand does not take the lead in compet—ing with international brands.With the support of the Internet and big data,the competitiveness in the international market has improved significantly.In the past 10 years,the efficient use of information technol—ogy tools has made Chinese brand even more powerful in the digital age.With the help of the Internet platform,China textile and garment industry,which has been known for its production and processing for many years,has integrated online and offline channels,relying on its strong industrial chain foundation,so that its products have quickly made its name known in the international market.In a certain sense,with the help of the power of the Internet,today's Chinese clothing brands have realized their dream in a very short time that traditional brands had to need ten years or even decades to realize.

According to the report "New Global Consumption Trends and China Brands Going Abroad",in 2021,the global trustrank of China brand rose against the trend,and its influence increased by 6% com—pared with 2019.E—commerce platforms such as SHEIN are popular overseas,attracting the attention of the international market.On August 30th,Hurun Research Institute released the "Global Unicorns 2022".There are 127 unicorns on the list in the e—commerce industry,with a total value of about 2.6 trillion yuan,accounting for 9% of the total global unicorn value.In the field of e—commerce,the number one is SHEIN,a fast fashion cross—border e—commerce giant located in Guangzhou,China.

Established in 2014,ZAFUL is another little known brand to domes—tic consumers but rececived well feedbacks overseas.As a female fast fashion brand that has emerged in recent years,it has chosen a totally different entry point,swimwear.Swimwear is a fast—selling category with a short update period in the European and American markets.It is small in size,less in materials,lower in sales and transportation cost,and can obtain a larger profit margin.In China,the supply chain of swimwear in—dustry is very mature.Therefore,just a few years,ZAFUL was promoted to become the first brand of swimwear export category in China.The super—fast update speed of new products has become the sharp weapon of this brand.It only takes an average of 1—2 weeks for new products to be designed and put on shelves,and the daily update volume reaches 50—100 models.In the "2021 BrandZ Top 50 Global Brands in China" report released in May 2021,ZAFUL was listed for the fourth time,ranking 43rd.

Digital marketing has improved customer experience,digital prod—ucts and services have enabled the transformation of enterprise business model,and digital R＆D,supply chain,production and management have promoted the internal operation structure of enterprises,allowing enter—prises to calmly cope with changing market and customer needs.With the blessing of science and technology,China clothing brands can accelerate their transformation and upgrading,and stand on the world stage with a more confident attitude.